 This is the Metaverse. It is supposedly the next big thing that will irrevocably alter our online lives. But will it? And what exactly is it? I'm Jackson, director of video production at Cointelegraph. And in this video, we're going to dive into what the Metaverse has to offer and how blockchain technology will be key in building it. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for new videos about crypto. We are the leading channel for crypto news coverage and education. Let's break it down. The term Metaverse is not new. It is a blend of the words meta, which means transcendent or beyond, and verse, which simply refers to universe. The term was originally coined by Neil Stevenson in his 1992 sci-fi novel. He uses the word to describe a virtual world where the main character socializes, shops, and fights enemies through his avatar. Sounds familiar, right? Today, the Metaverse is quickly becoming a collaborative virtual space where people can put on their VR headsets or control their 3D avatars to interact, play, learn, and even work. It is also becoming an entirely new economic realm. The Metaverse is exactly like the current version of the internet, but it's fully immersive. Well, maybe not just yet. So now that you know what the Metaverse is, you're probably wondering who is actually building it. It looks like a video game, so it's probably just the gaming studios, right? Well, not exactly. Remember this guy? To redesign the Facebook app. Now he's this guy. Our company is now Meta. When the social media giants start getting involved, that is a signal that the Metaverse is going to be much more than a game. It could potentially give people a way to have a second alternative virtual life. But wait, if Meta, Facebook, is building our second reality, how do we know it's not going to be plagued by the same problems caused by social media giants today? I know I don't want Meta selling my second life's data to virtual Putin. There's got to be a better or at least safer way. And there is. But first, whether we like it or not, major corporations will likely play a major role in how the Metaverse develops and evolves. Microsoft, for example, is building a workplace-focused Metaverse in a digital environment called Mesh. It's also bought video game maker Activision for almost $70 billion to, in the words of the CEO, provide the building blocks for the Metaverse. Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, announced it would put forth $1 billion to support the company's long-term vision for the Metaverse. Nike is creating a virtual world called Nike Land on Roblox, and H&M launched its first virtual fashion show on Animal Crossing. Meta has the biggest stakes in the Metaverse. The company has invested billions of dollars in it, and although Meta says they don't want to own the Metaverse, their actions tell a different story. For now, I think for the foreseeable future we're going to be living in, like, Meta's version of the Metaverse. They'd like to own as much of it as possible. I mean, they're spending $10 billion, you know, just this year alone on this stuff, and they're going to spend more annually going forward. It seems clear now more than ever that big courts are looking to rack up profits as they position themselves at the center of the Metaverse, the new multibillion-dollar Eden. But for a lot of people, building the Metaverse is a chance to get right what the internet got wrong, such as user privacy, data protection, trustless transactions, and unchangeable record keeping. And that's precisely where blockchain technology will become key. A blockchain-based Metaverse would inherit the values the blockchain industry was founded on, namely permissionless access, censorship resistance, security, and decentralization. The unhackability and immutability of blockchains are critical properties for securing any virtual reality technology for broad adoption. Hacks and data breaches are common in the real world, but if people are supposed to operate in an entirely virtual environment, the underlying platform must be secure. Not only does blockchain allow for the fast confirmation of information, but it also allows for cryptographically secure and protected transactions. Blockchain and crypto assets are fundamental to creating a safe virtual reality. NFT technology will also be the foundation for property ownership in the Metaverse. I know everyone by now is sick of hearing about NFTs, but there really isn't a better way to prove that only you own that two square feet of land right next to Snoop. One of the best examples of this would be Decentraland, a virtual world owned by the community and based on the blockchain platform Ethereum. Decentraland is divided into virtual pieces of land that can be bought with Mana, the cryptocurrency of Decentraland, and owned by identifying them with NFTs. Your property allows you to create and develop anything you can imagine on that plot of land. As this company did in November 2021 after spending 618,000 Mana or $2.42 million to buy 116 pieces of virtual land to build virtual stores. They plan to sell clothes for avatars and host fashion shows. Another example is Sandbox, a virtual environment on the Ethereum blockchain where users may create, control, and sell their game experiences using Sand, the platform's utility token. Sandbox also partnered with Snoop Dogg to bring the legendary icon into the Metaverse. Snoop is working on building his own virtual world on the platform. And you know what? An NFT collector spent a little under half a million dollars to become Snoop's next door neighbor. Blockchain technology is laying the groundwork for a new economic environment which could generate trillions of dollars in the next few years. Who knows, it may even become bigger than the physical economy in the next few decades. But for all of this to truly work, we need to be able to seamlessly move from one virtual space to another using the same avatars and digital items and be able to conduct real-time transactions. And that brings us to one of the biggest questions marked so far in the evolution of the Metaverse. I'm going to use a long and annoying word here that you've probably heard before. Interoperability. How do you actually bridge your Metaverse life from Ethereum to Solana, for example, or to Meta? Right now, it's pretty much impossible, especially when one of those parties, Meta, is acting like this is a zero-sum game. Maybe it's true that only one Metaverse will prevail after 10 years of competition, but I kind of hope not. We've come this far because we are a community, building separately, but also together with a common shared vision. Imagining that being taken over by a corporation makes my skin grow. No company should run the world. Or else, what's the point? And at the end of the day, there is one last hurdle to overcome, to develop a new internet infrastructure that can actually support the Metaverse. If the Metaverse will rely on augmented and virtual reality devices, it will need higher internet speeds capable of transmitting enormous amounts of data per second. And on the other hand, those VR devices will need tiny, super-fast microprocessors capable of handling hyper-realistic graphics with high refresh rates, high frames per second, and so on. There is a lot of innovating that still needs to be done before the vision matches the reality, pun intended. Humanity is in the midst of creating the most complete alternate reality to ever exist. From books, to television, to computers, to this. Even though the Metaverse is new, the urge to journey into fantasy began a long time ago. If you enjoyed the video, be sure to like it, leave us a comment below, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel. The Cointelegraph Cryptopedia is your guide to the chaotic space of blockchain and cryptocurrency.